US Navy says has not lost drone over Gulf

Dubai, December 4, 2012

No US drone has been lost in the Gulf recently, a US Navy spokesman said after Iran said on Tuesday it had captured a US intelligence-gathering drone in its airspace in the last few days.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said a ScanEagle drone was gathering information over the Gulf and had entered Iranian airspace when it was "captured".

"The U.S. Navy has fully accounted for all unmanned air vehicles (UAV) operating in the Middle East region. Our operations in the Gulf are confined to internationally recognized water and air space," a spokesman for U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain said.

"We have no record that we have lost any ScanEagles recently." – Reuters